Little Italy-Chinatown violence

The Little Italy-Chinatown violence took place in 2001 in New York City, United States. The violence arose from the Leone crime family's murder of Lee Chong during their competition with the Triads over the drug trade in the area, and actions taken by Leone mobster Toni Cipriani to collect extortion money from dry cleaning businesses in Chinatown led to all-out war between the neighborhoods of Little Italy and Chinatown.

Background
The violence between the neighborhoods of Little Italy and Chinatown began when Leone family made man Joey Leone had his associate Claude Speed murder "Chunky" Lee Chong, a food vendor in Chinatown who was selling drugs for the Colombian cartel. His death at the hands of Speed and his sniper rifle provoked the Chinese, and Leone member Toni Cipriani's attempts to collect extortion money from some dry cleaning businesses in Chinatown led to the Triads attempting to kill him. Speed himself escaped a Triad ambush while collecting the extortion money for Cipriani, and Cipriani decided that the Mafia would go to war with the Triads.

War
Don Salvatore Leone, the boss of the Mafia, called a meeting with his son Joey, with Cipriani, and Luigi Goterelli at his mansion to discuss the situation, but the Chinese set up an ambush of the limousine outside of Cipriani's mother's restaurant. Several fish trucks attacked the limo, so Speed left the limo and headed to cover next to the restaurant, shooting at the Triad trucks until they caught fire and killing all of the Triad attackers. When he drove the limo towards the gate of Leone's mansion, he found two Triad trucks blocking the entrance, so he used an RPG to destroy the trucks. With the path clear, he was able to deliver the mobsters to the Leone mansion, and Leone decided to go to war with the Chinese. Cipriani sent Speed to carry out retribution attacks against the Chinese warlords, killing three of them (including Chang Chinyu) with the help of Joey Frattini and Tony Landucci) and dozens of their soldiers.